The Rise of Cerberus

Victor was in his office, seething in anger. He eyed his adversary and fought down the urge to send a lance of pure energy through it. No… If he did that, he would just have to buy a new printer. He gritted his teeth and once again tried to clear the paper jam. His phone rang. Thanking the gods for the distraction he saw it was Jean Ralphio. Knowing he was calling about a job he messaged the rest of Team Cerberus to meet him at Puzzles.

Jean Ralphio hadn’t heard from a friend of his in a couple of days and Emarka commonly worked with some of the nastier gangs in the city. Blackmail, and other secret dealings was commonplace for him. Jean Ralphio began worrying so he decided that Cerberus would be able to not only check up on him but probably get a job from him while they were there. Two birds, one stone. He transmitted the coordinates, Trinity Towers apartment complex.

After meeting at Puzzles the group headed off to their mission. They arrived at the Trinity Towers complex and were quickly detoured into some of the fancier restaurants and bars. Annabelle was recognized and she told the bartender to put their order on her father’s card. The detour ended quickly enough, Dominic wanting to return again afterwards, and the team headed to the elevators. They waited until there was no one in sight and Bic hacked the elevator’s cameras. He set the camera to loop footage of the empty elevator. Now invisible to tower security, the team got inside. Bic overrode the elevator’s key card system and allowed them to travel all the way to the top to the penthouse suite.

Victor and Orion were still on the lower levels keeping an eye on security. Once Bic arrived at the top floor he gave them the all clear and sent the elevator back down to them. The penthouse room appeared to be immaculate. A bowl of fresh fruit looked tempting, a fancy candelabra was burning on the kitchen table and it smelled of fresh baked pie. There was no sign of Emarka through the glass but with several doors beyond there was plenty of places that he might be. One by one they entered the penthouse where they learned of the true horrors within.

As soon as Dominic crossed the threshold the world around him darkened. What was once a pristine room was now a blackened charred wreck. The fruit Dominic planned on swiping was rotten and crawling with bugs, the candelabra now looked to be made of black twisted metal burning green flames and Emarka was dead at the table, blood splattered all over the cloth. He turned and immediately saw, instead of the glass doors he had just walked through, soot covered black brick walls. He was trapped. Tentatively he made his way through the area. Luckily it wasn’t long before the rest of the group began to walk in as well. While now he had allies to aid him, they were subsequently trapped as well.

While exploring the group was suddenly ambushed by a pack of imps. They had the amazing ability to phase through the solid ground or ceilings and had begun trying to grab at them. The imps were quickly killed but this didn’t solve their problem of being trapped. Bic assuming imp blood and other harvestable reagents would sell on the black market began collecting the bodies of the little monsters. Sadly the group was making no headway into their escape. Worse yet was after slaying another imp, shortly thereafter its body dissolved into nothingness. Bic quickly checked the container he had stored the bodies he’d collected; they were gone.

Annabelle could tell the candelabra was highly magical. She also saw black blood drenching the two candles which weren’t lit. Between her and Victor they deduced what needed to be done. Cerberus quickly took the dead imps and splashed their blood against the lit flames finally dousing them. Orion explored further into the apartment when he was ambushed by three imps. The three were a flurry of claws, wings and stingers and before long Orion fell to his knees succumbing to their poison. Dominic rushed to his aid dispatching the remaining imps. They quickly healed their friend before using the remaining blood to douse the flames.

Once all the fires were out the doors and windows were no longer blocked but the room was still a burnt out husk of what it once was. Bic took the magical candelabra and they hunted around the apartment for anything of value before quickly making their way out. The police would be able to take it from here, they didn’t need to be caught at the scene of such a crime.

Annabelle was relaxing at Puzzles smoking a hookah when her phone rang. It was her mother. She looked at her phone and sighed. She knew what it was about. Her presence was required for her father’s award ceremony this evening. She hated fancy events like this. All the strict rules and proper behavior. She sighed, left the hookah behind and tossed the gold it cost to Cecelia who waved goodbye.

Upon arriving home she we greeted by Francois the Lockridge family Majordomo. He shuffled her up the stairs to her room, she was much later than expected and now they were going to have to rush in order to be on time. Annabelle was told to shower and clean up while Tracy, her maid laid out her outfit and prepared everything she would need to do the girl’s hair. Annabelle was dreading having to deal with all the stuffy boring aristocrats tonight and decided that perhaps a curve ball was in order. She leaned out of the shower pulled out her phone and scrolled to the name Dominic Masters.

Dom was in his element, he practically flew across the rooftops of Capital City. Music blared through his headphones as he leapt from one building to the next soaring through the air. He was just catching a grind wire when his phone rang. He hit a button on the side of his headphones and answered. Annabelle was inviting him out to a fancy gala? After confirming that there would in fact be food at the event he agreed. He got her address and hopped to the nearest building heading to her home.

Francois was not expecting the call when a the guard monitoring the front gates called him to say there was a young man here asking for Annabelle, saying he was her date for the evening. He smiled though. Perhaps she was finally taking her station seriously. When he opened the door however and saw the young ruffian before him he sighed deeply. He nearly shut the door, but it was his job to serve, not judge. Mr. and Mrs. Lockridge were in the den awaiting their daughter. He brought Dominic to Mr. Lockridge who greeted him rather curtly. Since he doubted his daughter could be deterred from her set course Mr. Lockridge instructed Francois to find him something suitable to wear to the gala.

The limousine ride was a tense affair. Dominic did his best to make friends with the Lockridges but winning them over was slow going, even the adorable antics of Dom’s pet mouse Rutherford weren’t making much headway. Upon arrival Dom and Annabelle waited in the foyer while her parents were announced and sent to their seat. Her father was received warmly, the gala was in his honor after all. Directly after them Annabelle and her escort Dominic were announced. The reception seemed more polite than anything else but Annabelle, who detested such events, ignored it.

For the unlikely pair, the party was enjoyable, Annabelle’s father received his award and the dinner was delicious. The pair danced and was having a good time until while stopping at a food table Annabelle was confronted by a group of young nobles. Twin sisters Ivy and Estelle Caldwell and their current boyfriends Duane and Brandon. Estelle, like the two men with them were members of the Verothian military. Ivy on the other hand was a skilled pilot and flew in stunt plane competitions. There had been a longstanding rivalry between Annabelle and the girls not to mention Duane had tormented Annabelle since primary school. Annabelle told the four of them off and did her best to ignore them. Dominic sensing her discomfort intervened and began blatantly hitting on the twins.

The party went on without much incident. Dominic did his best to be the life of the party to the point of even pulling out his quarterstaff and orchestrating a limbo contest. To the surprise of many of the rather proper individuals present couldn’t resist the young man’s charm and began to participate. While he was distracted however Duane cornered Annabelle. He started talking with her and suddenly knocked down an expensive vase. When all eyes turned to them he quickly blamed the shocked girl. With no one to speak on her behalf, Duane was believed and the damaged vase was blamed on Annabelle.

The humiliated girl stalked away to the bar where Dominic found her later. To take her mind off of things he started to order drinks at which point a young knight, Sir Lanternjaw approached them. He boasted of his strength and thus Dom threw together an impromptu arm wrestling competition. Dominic was taking bets and putting all his money on the powerful knight. They were getting drinks and making money until a shadow fell over them all. They turned to find a nine foot tall Minotaur hulking over them. Ralph Tauren famed fashion designer and prime tabloid material was willing to play. Dominic still decided to put his money and his faith in Lanternjaw but his hopes were dashed when the man was all but thrown across the bar by the massive man. Tauren laughed and didn’t make Dominic pay up, instead he bought a round for the bar.

As the party winded down Dominic and Annabelle went outside with their new friend Sir Lanternjaw to get some air. There they were once again accosted by Duane. This time he was there with his friends from his unit. Knowing when to fight and when not to fight Dominic just talked some trash at the bully before him and they left without incident. While everyone was leaving a large limousine pulled around the front of the building. The massive form of Ralph Tauren leap from the sunroof. Declaring that the after party was going to be taking place at his home. He refused to give the address saying that if they wanted to come to the party they would have to keep up. He nodded to his driver, a young woman, of a nationality they didn’t recognize who was pulling on driving gloves with a smirk on her face.

Duane looked at Annabelle, his motorcycle, arrived driverless at his side. He pulled on his helmet and revved the engine. Ivy’s stunt plane hovered overhead slowly readying to land on the lawn. Dozens of others were excitedly readying their vehicles for the massive race through the city streets. Sir Lanternjaw stopped next to Annabelle, his majestic white warhorse whinnied rearing up on its hind legs. He reached down and pulled her up, the reigns tightening in his hands. Dominic looked back at the assembly of riders and drivers, smirked and clicked his heels together. Wheels popped out the bottoms of his enchanted boots and he slowly skated beside the limo. Despite the laughter he knew he would have no problem keeping up. The moment Ralph roared go, Dominic reached out and grabbed hold of the Minotaur’s massive horns. He trailed alongside the limo itself before making it onto the hood himself.

The chase was on. Most of the inexperienced racers couldn’t hope to match the skills of Ralph’s driver. Akiko Hayami was former Japanese police officer who had a vast amount of experience racing cars. She would ensure that only those worthy would arrive at her boss’ party. Ralph and Dominic were having the time of their lives on the hood, Ralph was holding onto the hood ornament while Dom’s boots kept him stuck to the surface. They spent the race laughing and taking selfies. Behind the limo however things started to take a turn. Spellfire erupted between Duane and Annabelle, mostly harmless rays to slow each other down, but at the speeds they were going things could get bad quickly; luckily Duane backed off.

Once at the party Annabelle was loath to discover that Duane had made it there anyway. Ivy had been following overhead and simply relayed their destination. The party was going well until in the back gardens Duane, who was now quite drunk made some rather offensive remarks to Annabelle. Now not surrounded by his military friends and far away from the judging eyes of the nobility Dominic was at his tipping point, he took off the fine suit jacket, tied it around his waist and with a furious flurry of blows proceeded to decimate Duane in front of dozens of onlookers. The fight lasted all of five seconds. Having had enough for one night the two decided to head home. Dominic brought Annabelle back to her family’s estate and disappeared back into the welcoming night air.

Dominic Masters and Orion arrived back at Puzzles and rallied the group. Many of them were still tired from the previous night’s adventure but the prospect of taking down, or even taking over an established drug ring was too tantalizing for Cerberus to pass up. The crew geared up and made their way to Xavier’s building. They arrived with the intent to take over the building. Orion led the way in ignoring the building’s many occupants. The people inside mainly ignored the group as well save for the few who asked for money or drugs.

Making their way up the stairs they spotted cameras which watched the halls. Their approach was no longer a secret but Orion stabbed a knife through the one at his back, then strung an arrow and let loose a masterful shot destroying the one at the other end of the hall as well. It was here on the second floor that the first wave of enemies made their presence known. They flooded out of a security room but fell quickly to the overwhelming skill of Cerberus.

After dispatching the cameras on the third floor the group saw several crystalline structures growing out of the floor and ceilings. These turned out to be mephits, bound to the defense of Xavier’s building. Though there were many mephits Cerberus eventually won out. Halfway down the hallway however Dominic was grabbed, and pulled into a large security room. The room was actually three apartments wide and held a great deal of security equipment, but also a large number of guards. Xavier’s men were well armed and Dominic was in trouble. He managed to wrestle his way free and get back out the door, but Orion decided to charge back in. He kicked the door open and leapt inward firing his bow as he did. The guards were now ready and behind cover. Orion’s foolhardy move was met with a hail of gunfire. Annabelle rushed in lending her magic to the fight and Dominic returned into the room.

They were able to defeat those inside but Orion was badly injured. He took a moment to catch his breath and drink down several healing potions before they were able to continue. On the next floor they found several guards and a half dozen more mephits waiting for them. Still winded from their last encounter, Annabelle took charge and went a much more tactful route. She rendered herself invisible and snuck down the hallway until she was right on top of the pack. She let loose a gout of fire into the unsuspecting group decimating them right off the bat. A few arrows from Orion and the hallway fell silent.

On the final floor there were no more apartments only a large security door and a guard room beyond. Cerberus decided to forego the door and punched a hole in the glass opting to enter that way. The area beyond was shielded by a heavy plastic that went from the ceiling to the floors to prevent vapor from escaping the large scale manufacturing process. Beyond the curtains were massive tanks with all manner of warning labels on them several guards were furiously loading any remaining drugs into a van which was seated on an elevator lift on the north wall.

Cerberus snapped into action but the resistance up to this point were simple thugs and summoned mephits. These men were hardened security forces and Xavier himself. Bullets and spells flew back and forth while men in lab coats dove for cover shrieking about the unstable chemicals. Luck was on everyone’s side as no one managed to set anything off lest the whole building go up in smoke. Dominic made his way through the combatants squaring off against Xavier himself. As the final blow was dealt Xavier fell forward into an overconfident Dominic. In his death throws the warlock smashed his circlet into Dominic’s face giving him a small scar over his eye.

Surveying the area Orion took charge. He spoke with the scientists and the surrendered security team and declared through right of conquest that he was taking over the building. No one was willing to dispute his claim fearing for their own lives. Orion destroyed all the drugs that they had been trying to flee the building with and retired to the highest floor. He secured the room and began to make the building his own plotting to put the facility to use.

Dominic Masters was a night owl. He spent most of his nights carving his own path through the city, so after helping his friends in Cerberus keep an eye on Johnny Slim he couldn’t sleep. Orion found himself in a similar state. He was vaguely unsatisfied with last night’s excitement having missed out on the fights at the club. The two of them were in Puzzles having an impromptu throwing knife contest and thoroughly destroying a dart board in doing so. Out of the corner of Orion’s eye he saw a man speaking with Raven Hickson one of their regulars who was enjoying the hookah bar. This wasn’t out of the ordinary, Raven was a very attractive woman. Men and women approached her often, but this time the look on her face was that of fear.

Once the man left Orion put the game on hold and went to speak with her. Raven was hesitant to speak on the subject but eventually relented. Orion and Victor had only ever been nice to her and she knew there was more to them than met the eye. It turned out the man, Xavier Tortellini was blackmailing her. She told Orion what she could of the situation but preferred to keep the nature of Xavier’s information private. Orion decided to help then and there. The remainder of the team was still sleeping off last night’s mission, but he figured one man shouldn’t be too much trouble. Enlisting the help of Dominic the two headed to the back room and prepared to put an end to Raven’s problems. Dom pulled out his disguise kit and immediately checked his supply of fake mustaches. There were plenty available to them. The two smiled as they surveyed the wide variety at their disposal. They each chose a fitting stache and got to work tracking down Xavier.

Their first stop was a dive bar called Warden’s. Dominic checked the exterior, circling the building then climbing up onto the roof. It was there that he spotted a small imp. He had an aptly sized tablet, with a movie playing on it. The imp was too busy tossing the device into the air and catching it instead of watching. Dom notified Orion of the situation. Orion headed into the dimly lit bar. It smelled of stale beer and fryer grease. It was busier than usual but that was due to The Swashbuckler’s game on screen. None of the patrons even looked away from the screen when Orion sat at the bar. The Hunter smiled seeing Johnny scoring his second goal of the day and ordered an Old Lady Haymaker and took a sip.

Orion finished his drink and spotted the man they were looking for. Xavier was wearing a long black leather coat and mirrored shades. He was hard at work typing on his laptop. A tablet was on the table as well. Orion discreetly made his way passed Xavier hoping to glean some information off the screens. The War of Ten Kings was the article he was reading. Orion filed this information away but his movements unfortunately tipped Xavier off. Realizing what was happening their quarry packed his things and headed outside. Before the two mustachioed adventurers could react Xavier was on a sports bike. Two imps landed on his shoulders then took cover inside his coat. The man opened the throttle and zoomed away.

Not one to be outrun, Dominic led the chase. He took to the rooftops and followed. The trail led them to a bad part of town. Three buildings stood near one another, the two Cerberus members approached cautiously. There were many people milling about the area, they questioned them and quickly learned about a major drug production operation Xavier was leading. They paid the man for the information who claimed he would be using it to clean up his life. Knowing that this was a job for more than two men, they headed back to Puzzles to hang up their mustaches and prepare for a fight.

Team Cerberus was relaxing one night at Puzzles when Victor, browsing the Trinidad7 network, came across a job, private security work. Tomorrow morning the Capital City Swashbucklers would be playing against their legendary rivals the Lake Stanton Sharks. The Swashbuckler’s had a secret weapon however, their new forward Johnny “The Meat Man” Slim. The team knew of Johnny’s penchant for drinking, partying and fighting however so they put out a request for a security team to keep an eye on him and to ensure he would arrive at the game on time. Team Cerberus, despite not being licensed private security, took the job.

The first step was chartering a limousine for the evening. They had it pick them up at Puzzles and take them to the stadium to meet with their charge for the evening. Johnny wasted no time in deciding they would be going to the club. The limo driver, Ranjit, headed to Club Technochocolate. Johnny spent his ride drinking and hitting on Annabelle, unfortunately for him, got nowhere with her.

Upon their arrival Annabelle confidently made her way to the front of the line, the bouncer, recognizing her name, let them through immediately. Johnny ordered drinks and headed to the private room, Annabelle in tow. The rest of the team spread out, doing their jobs checking the area. One man stood out, Eddie Farfegnugen. He was a known mafia lieutenant, and was wearing a Sharks jersey. Eddie was on the phone, and eyeing Johnny. Cerberus didn’t like the look of the situation.

In the private room, near the back there were a few gambling tables. One man playing craps was Eddie’s little brother, a wannabe Mafioso. He was also sporting a Sharks jersey and started talking crap to Johnny. The two argued for a bit, but the situation was being monitored by Annabelle and other members of the team. Leaving the private room, Johnny hit the dance floor. That was when Team Cerberus spotted several shifty looking characters making their way over. The two who tried to take out Johnny on the dance floor didn’t even make it to him. Ro acted too quickly, taking them down while the rest of them headed out the side door of the club.

Once outside they found several more thugs. Another brawl erupted, this time getting in several good hits on the Swashbuckler’s new forward. Orion had the limo pull up to the alleyway and after dispatching the attackers, they loaded into the car and took off. Done with excitement for the night they decided to retire to a hotel. But instead of the one they had initially planned on, they went to a new one, and paid cash. On the way, unbeknownst to the team, Johnny took a selfie with Annabelle and posted it online with the name of the hotel he would be staying in.

Dominic posted himself outside the room while the remainder of the team stayed in. Johnny spent his remaining time before falling asleep striking out with Annabelle again and finally retired for the night. Eventually a room service cart arrived from the elevator down the hall. Dominic watched him approach. The man looked suspicious, he had a large scar down the right side of his face. The scar tracked through his eye which was covered in a patch. He was even whispering quietly to a small weasel who was perched on his shoulder. The weasel also was wearing an eye patch. It wasn’t until he was close enough that Dom saw the shotgun. It was poorly concealed as it was too large to be covered by the dining tray’s cover and the barrel and stock stuck out either side. Dominic had him down before the weapon could even be brought to bear.

The remainder of the night passed quietly and in the morning Ranjit pulled the limo around and they loaded up. Johnny was in the zone. He wasn’t thinking of drinks, dancing or even Annabelle. He was ready to play and after dropping him off at the clubhouse Cerberus was thanked profusely and the team’s vice president of operations gave them his card and got Orion’s number in case they needed their service again. That day Johnny and the rest of the team took the field and The Swashbucklers dominated the match.

When the three heads of Cerberus met with Jean Ralphio to collect their payment he also had another job for them. Jean Ralphio’s close friend Tom was the owner of Tom’s Bistro. They are well known for their soup. The recipe however was recently acquired by Paul Akerman through duplicitous means. Paul produces food en-mass for grocery stores and had already begun mixing soup to be canned. The health inspector was due the following morning at Paul’s canning plant and Jean Ralphio refused to let a single can of that soup be sold. He wanted Paul dead, and he wanted Cerberus to take care of it for him. They were told to kill Paul and leave the body floating in the soup for the inspector to find.

With no time to contact their fellow members the three set out to the canning plant on Ashwood where they surveyed the building from across the street. In efforts to lure out the two guards they decided to throw a rock through one of the windows. It worked, drawing one of the guards from the plant across a grind wire. They took down the guard and made him call his boss, their target, Paul Akerman. They then knocked the guard out, but not before offering him a position inside their organization. Horatio, figured he was about to be fired anyway, said he would think on it.

Once Paul arrived the three made the jump to the top of the canning plant. That is except Orion who couldn’t make the jump and was forced to climb the grind rail. He was spotted by people walking down the street who laughed and even snapped a picture. Once they were all atop the building they watched Paul through the skylights and formed a plan. Victor and Orion dropped to ground level, Victor hid beneath Paul’s car and Orion hid behind the exit door. Paul came out, and once inside his car, Victor popped up and cast a spell to hold him in place. Unfortunately things took a turn when Paul was able to shrug off the effects. He tried to speed away but Orion shot out one of the tires which sent the car slamming into the wall.

At this point employees began to exit the building to see what the commotion was about. The Exile handled it by holding them at gunpoint to ensure they didn’t cause any trouble. The three grabbed the now unconscious Paul and took him into the sewers. In the secret basement room of Puzzles they questioned Paul as to how he acquired the recipe from Tom. After gaining the information they wanted they finished the job, executing their prisoner and taking him back to the scene of the crime. They had to sneak past a police surveillance drone but they managed to break in successfully. After dropping the body in the soup they dashed back to the sewers and made their escape.

Annabelle Lockridge was restless. She lay in her magnificent four poster bed but couldn’t sleep. The magic power she wielded twitched and stirred inside of her once again preventing her from drifting away. Unable to stand the power itching painfully away under her skin she threw off the blankets and went to her closet and got dressed. She slipped on the gauntlet given to her by Victor Blackwell and scanned the Vale for something fun to do. Perhaps drinking at a bar or dancing in a nightclub would stop the pain in her legs. She found nothing worthwhile so she decided to sneak over to Puzzles and use the Trinidad7 network. There she found a job, a call for thieves. She downloaded the coordinates to her gauntlet, headed to the roof and was off.

Across town a young man was skating and jumping rooftop to rooftop looking for excitement. Dominic Masters, Dom as his friends called him, kept his hood down. The wind whipped at his hair as he skated on, music blasting from his headphones, his movements in sync with the rhythm. The music cut for a brief second when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He leapt to a grind rail between two high rises. 200 feet above the city streets he checked his texts. The message was about a job, a simple smash and grab it claimed. By the time he reached the next building he had already set his GPS. He pulled his hood up, he was on his way.

Dominic arrived first, he surveyed the rooftop, four others were already present. Two were standing close, chatting quietly near the roof access door while the other two stood out in the open. Neither of them were saying anything so Dom took a seat on the edge of the building, his headphones on but muted, trying to catch a whisper or two. Annabelle arrived not long after, with no one interested in talking, she stood and waited as well.
Soon a small drone dropped from the sky and projected a hologram of a man’s face. He introduced himself as Booker. He explained that the job was a two man operation; he smirked telling them to work it out among themselves. A fight erupted almost immediately. Given the others were working in pairs Annabelle and Dominic caught each other’s eye and formed a quick alliance. Between Anna’s magic and Dom’s quarterstaff they made quick work of the first pair, unfortunately the drone was caught by an errant spell and crashed to the ground.

Before the two could address the final pair they took off running toward a building to the south. Another drone was landing; it was now a race for the information. Dom jumped for it and upon landing took a dart in the neck. Helen, the woman who shot it smirked as she collected the information from the drone. Being forced to retreat, Dom and Anna had to regroup and cut the two off. Luckily the pair finally managed to gain the upper hand after Dom swiped the Helen’s tablet. She negotiated her device back in exchange for the information.

Annabelle and her new friend Dominic hopped the nearest train and relaxed and made small talk on the way to the job, Dom patching his wounds. Half an hour later they arrived at the docks where they would have to make it to a houseboat in the harbor. Sneaking past the guards was easy enough. Dom knew enough tricks for getting around unseen that he was able to bring Annabelle with him to the edge of an unguarded pier. They swam to the boat and Dom unlocked the door. Anna kept guard while Dom infiltrated the boat. After a brief stop at the fridge where he filled his pockets with snacks he found the briefcase. It was empty, but he assumed it may have had a secret compartment or something. Unknown to him Helen had managed to delete the line about what was in the briefcase before transmitting the mission specs as revenge. They took the empty case and swam back to shore. Satisfied they made their way to the drop point.

The drone descended and Dominic presented the briefcase. Upset by the empty case Booker refused payment and informed Annabelle that she owed him a replacement drone for the one she fried. For the pair, the night ended up being a wash. They didn’t get paid, but they each walked away with a new friend. That night Dominic had found his excitement he was looking for and when Annabelle arrived home she fell right to sleep.

Victor was once again reading minds while people drank and found himself listening to the thoughts of Stanley Atwood, a trucker with Violet Freight. In a few days time he would be transporting cargo via his 18 wheeler from Trindibal Island to three warehouses across Capital City and, once empty, finally stopping at the Stanton Military Base to pick up more cargo there. Stanley knew his job had risks, but had never seen any danger. So this week when his bosses told him his cargo leaving Trindibal is worth quite a bit more than usual he became a bit uneasy. Even more so when they gave him a Kevlar vest and a shotgun just in case. During his second stop while his truck was safe at the warehouse he is going to get some sleep. But that is not before heading to Puzzles first where he is hoping to get Cecelia’s number and maybe more.

When he arrived at Puzzles though team Cerberus was there, prepared to relieve him of his expensive cargo. Victor once again reached into his mind to learn more, but this time after delving too deep Stanley felt his presence and rushed out into his truck. While Victor learned the location of the trailer and the cargo Stanley was spooked. He quickly locked the doors and strapped on the Kevlar. Orion stealthily perused Stanley who drove as fast as he could to the nearest police station. Orion gave up the chase once he determined the destination and joined the rest of Cerberus at the warehouse.

Infiltration was not too difficult, attacking from two directions they dispatched the guards on the roof. With no one able to hack the door, breaking it down was a much simpler course of action. Once inside the team knocked out several more guards and a single loader construct. Things were going smoothly until Annabelle lost control of her magic and a surge of lightning blasted forth vaporizing a final security guard. The team pressed on, found the keys to the truck and opened it up.

Inside they found the compartment they were looking for, a compartment that was guarded by a heavily armored mercenary, the symbol for The Murder of Crows was emblazoned on his chest. The guard, not expecting the sudden attack was dispatched quickly and left with one of Orion’s arrows through his eye. There were six crates full of manastones inside the compartment. Stones mined out of the hellish world of De’Ehm’See. After securing the crates Cerberus realized one very obvious mistake. They had no means of transporting the crates out of the warehouse.

Thinking quickly Orion went to a parking lot he had passed on his way to the warehouse. Having never hot wired a car before he called Jean Ralphio who was in the club at the time. Shouting over the loud music he walked Orion through stealing a van. They loaded their ill gotten gains into the newly acquired black van and sped off. To throw any pursuers and the police off their trail Annabelle used her magic to change the color of the van to a bright red. Orion unloaded the manastones in his apartment and ditched the van in the parking space of his thuggish dick of a neighbor. He even went as far as to plant two manastones in his neighbor’s apartment to frame him.

With the stones secure Team Cerberus split once again and Victor began checking into sources to buy their loot. Jean Ralphio was his first choice, but put some feelers out onto the Trinidad7 network.

Delving deep into the thoughts of the patrons of Puzzles, Victor came across some valuable information. Manfred Aran, who works at Paragon Diversified Machining, would be receiving the prototype plans for an electrical engine to run a cost benefits analysis and approve or reject the engine for production. He has been drinking because he is conflicted. He has already received a good amount of pressure from the engineer teams for its approval and has been offered incentives from corporate headquarters to push the approval through quickly. After gaining a few more bits of information Victor stopped as to avoid detection.

Team Cerberus, after enlisting the aid of a hacker named Bic and sorceress, Annabelle Lockridge, proceeded to Manfred’s office in Paragon office park on Brickhill Ave. Bic went in through the front doors claiming to be the new janitor. After some convincing he found himself in the security office where he magically stole the guard’s taser. Now armed Bic put enough voltage into the guard to knock him out. Bic pocketed the guard’s ID card and keys before meeting up with the rest of the team on the roof.

Infiltrating the rest of the building went well until they tangled with the guards on the third floor. A fight between them and the guards ensued. Knowing that the security team would have alerted the police Cerberus acted quickly. Despite the brawl Orion located Manfred’s office and secured the package. Bic meanwhile found himself in some trouble when tangling with a guard got tased and knocked out himself. Bic was awoken by Annabelle and proceeded to hack into the Paragon mainframe for any additional valuable information. He learned of the blackmailing of Elizabeth Morris and decided to take advantage of the situation finding and securing the evidence and Elizabeth’s prepared payment. Hearing sirens in the distance Cerberus wasted no time in their escape.

Plans in hand and safely back in the hidden room at Puzzles Victor and Bic accessed the Trinidad7 network to find themselves a buyer. A meeting was set and Bic, Orion and Annabelle, under the cover of invisibility went to meet with the fence. In an alleyway near 5th and Amsterdam they met Jean Ralphio, an eccentric criminal who bought the engine plans after some negotiations.

Team Cerberus retired back to Puzzles afterwards, the team said their goodbyes and parted ways. But they all knew it wouldn’t be long until they found themselves together again.